Larranaga comes 'home' for NCAA tournament regional

March 28, 2013|David Teel

WASHINGTON — — At the risk of buzz-kill accusations: Jim Larranaga lost the last two games he coached here at the Verizon Center.

Larranaga's return to the nation's capital is a natural story as his Miami Hurricanes prepare for Thursday's NCAA East Regional semifinal against Marquette. He coached in suburban D.C. for 14 seasons at George Mason, and seven years ago this week he guided the 11th-seeded Patriots to the East Regional championship at the Verizon Center.

George Mason in the Final Four? The Patriots' implausible run sent scribes racing to research George Mason, the man and the university, and turned Larranaga into a celebrity.

He remained at Mason another five seasons, returning to the tournament in 2008 and '11. After that latter appearance, Miami sagely offered him his dream opportunity: coaching in the ACC.

At 63, he has the Hurricanes where they've been only once, that in 2000 under Leonard Hamilton: the Sweet 16.

"This is not just any other arena," he said. "We have had a lot of new things occur, and all as a direct result of our performance here in the Verizon Center. Those memories last a lifetime."

Mason upset Michigan State and North Carolina to reach the regionals in 2006, and then defeated Wichita State easily and Connecticut in overtime in Washington. The Patriots lost to eventual national champion Florida in a Final Four semifinal in Indianapolis.

But those East Regional games weren't the last the Patriots played in this building under Larranaga. In 2006 and '07 regional charity events, Mason lost to Bucknell and East Carolina, respectively.

Those defeats are long forgotten. Not so the victories that lifted the Patriots to the Final Four.

In stark contrast to that Mason team, Larranaga's Miami squad entered the tournament a popular Final Four choice. The second-seeded Hurricanes (29-6) won the ACC regular season and tournament and boast the conference's Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, as voted by the coaches, in Shane Larkin and Durand Scott.

"They've been the story of the year," Marquette coach Buzz Williams said, "and rightfully so."

Indeed, picked to finish fifth in the ACC, Miami won its first 13 league games. While the other East semifinalists — Marquette, Indiana and Syracuse — have national-title banners, the Hurricanes have never reached a regional final, let alone a Final Four.

But Miami has Larranaga, who after Sunday's 63-59 victory over Illinois broke into the Ali Shuffle in the locker room. The video went viral.

"I (had) asked them to fight," Larranaga said. "They weren't fighting hard enough for loose balls and rebounds … and that's what it was going to take to win the game. And when they did, I was walking into the locker room … the first name that popped into my head was one of my childhood heroes, 'The Greatest,' Muhammad Ali.

"I don't know if my players know who he was, but I said to them, 'I asked you guys to fight and what I saw out there was Muhammad Ali,' and I broke into the Ali Shuffle. I have no idea why I did that."

The Hurricanes will have to fight Thursday and, if they advance, Saturday without sixth man Reggie Johnson, their leading rebounder. He sustained a knee injury against Illinois, had minor surgery this week and did not accompany the team to Washington.

Larranaga hopes that Johnson — Miami is 7-2 without him this season — would be available for the Final Four.

Johnson's wasn't the most harrowing surgery affecting the teams. Williams' wife underwent an emergency appendectomy last week in Lexington, Ky., where the Golden Eagles survived Davidson by one point and Butler by two.

She "delivered all four children of ours naturally," Williams said, "and I've never seen her in that sort of pain. … She is tougher than all of us."

His team is plenty tough, too. Marquette (25-8) shared the Big East regular-season title with Louisville and Georgetown. Led by junior forward Davante Gardner, a graduate of Suffolk's King's Fork High, the Golden Eagles are deep, rugged and competing in their third consecutive Sweet 16.

This is Williams' fifth NCAA tournament in six seasons as a head coach, one at New Orleans and five at Marquette. Larranaga is working his sixth NCAA in 27 years of Division I work.

"I think he's pure in how he goes about things," Williams said of Larranaga. "I think he's a guy that someone at this point in my career can look up to, because I think he does it for the right reasons. I don't think he's in our industry for selfish motivation or ego."

Larranaga's players clearly believe the same. To a man, they endorse him as coach and confidant, and they want to win for him as well as themselves.

"He has a pretty good legacy in this building," Kadji said, "and we want it to continue."